EDITORIAL: Soccer stadium a good idea, but city shouldn’t foot planning costs

The valley’s continual cycle of sports venue proposals ensures that when one project dies, another emerges to take its place. So it is with a dramatic change to a plan to bring a major league team to downtown Las Vegas.

A proposed downtown sports and entertainment arena effectively collapsed more than a month ago, the moment MGM Resorts International and AEG began site preparation work on their state-of-the-art, 20,000-seat, $375 million, privately financed Strip arena. The city of Las Vegas couldn’t possibly ask taxpayers to back part of the downtown project’s costs for an arena that would directly compete with privately owned venues.

The Cordish Cos., the city’s development partner, deserves credit for pulling the plug on the $390 million downtown arena plan weeks before the group’s June 1 deadline to firm up the proposal. It was clear that the project, more than three years in the making, lacked the necessary political and popular support to move forward.

So the Cordish Cos. wisely decided to pursue a project the valley currently lacks: a stadium suitable for a Major League Soccer franchise. On Wednesday, the group will ask the council for an extension to its contract with the city. To get that time, the Cordish Cos. is offering something they never had before: a local business partner. Findlay Sports &Entertainment, a new company formed by Justin Findlay (son of Cliff Findlay, president of Henderson-based Findlay Automotive Group), would work with the Cordish Cos. in securing financing and an MLS team, then co-own the team if it all works out. The city would own the 24,000-seat stadium.

As reported last week by the Review-Journal’s Jane Ann Morrison, Cordish and Findlay want until Sept. 3 to get financial agreements in place. They would need an MLS franchise in place by Dec. 1. The stadium and its surrounding entertainment zone in Symphony Park would cost $300 million.

There doesn’t appear to be any problem with giving Cordish and Findlay more time to work on the specifics — except for the cost. The businesses want $250,000 from the city to cover planning costs. Already, Cordish has collected more than $1.3 million from the city for the failed arena plan, as well as $2.5 million to shift its location from the old City Hall, which became the headquarters of online retailer Zappos, to Symphony Park. And taxpayers are spending millions of dollars per year on interest on Symphony Park debt for land that sits undeveloped.

The city’s operating budget again was balanced by tapping reserves. The council can’t afford to give yet more money to a company that has collected millions of dollars and delivered nothing.

Then there’s the question of whether a downtown soccer stadium would hurt the prospects of a proposed on-campus stadium at UNLV, which has some buy-in from the casino industry and likely would be suitable for an MLS team and other soccer games if it’s built. The answer: probably. But there’s no guarantee a UNLV project would attract the kind of private funding Cordish and Findlay might be able to deliver. And both projects almost certainly would need a public funding component to be built. The valley desperately needs a versatile new stadium to replace the outdated, remote Sam Boyd Stadium, one capable of filling dozens of dates on the calendar and delivering a powerful, job-creating economic impact.

If the council wants to give Cordish and Findlay a shot at big-league soccer, let the companies cover planning costs on their own dime.